Ellie a survivor of the holocaust has become into a completely different person after that historic incident. Silence speaks louder than words during the concentration camps of WWII. The holocaust has broken his spirit and now you wouldn’t even be able to recognize him anymore. Traveling from camp to camp in the crammed carts showed you and gave you a feel of how bad it was and terrifying it was back then. The women in the cart kept screaming “Fire I see a Fire”(wiesel 23) Then the other passengers started to beat and gag her to keep her quite. Everyone started to lose their moralities. Everyone thought she was crazy but as they arrived they started to smell burning flesh. It’s kind of scary how she knew about all of this happening ahead of time but no one would listen.
This all has started back in 1944, German troops entered the town. The jews are first enclosed in the ghettos, then deported to concentration camps. Many jews attempted to hide in the ghettos when the Germans tried to transport them some stayed hidden many others were killed on spot after they found them. Sounds like one horrible game of hide and seek. The cattle cars in which they travel are crowded conditions are horrible.(wiesel,1) Jews were treated as if they were not human and started to get broken down. Germans dehumanized them to make it easier for them to exterminate them. Jews weren’t even considered as humans anymore and would get shot on spot with no remorse. It’s scary to look at how easily these jews were killed for just disobeying one command
Ellie arrives to the concentration camp of Birkenau, Ellie smells burning flesh. Ellie and his father are separated from his mother and sisters he was lucky to have has dad. Later that day their heads are shaved have showers and receive a prison uniform. Then everyone was tattooed and Ellie’s number was a-7713 (wiesel 1) Jews were also asked if they were sick or not and the ones that were sick were sent to a “hospital” then killed there. Next day inspection came and they checked every jew for gold crowns. They ripped them out of their mouths with no painkillers. Ellie was kind of lucky enough to keep his for a little longer but in the end a Nazis ended up scooping it up with a rusty spoon.(Wiesel 43) Ellie kept fighting himself to survive and stick it out but he was so tempted to give into death. This shows how torturous the conditions were.
After being at this camp for a while he gets beaten for peeping at this guard and Jew and he gets whipped through his flesh and passes out multiple times through the pain. He then met this girl that speaks his language but hides it so Germans wont suspect her of being jewish. She was extremely quiet and acted as if she wasn’t a jew she was just trying to survive she helped Ellie and talked to him but it there wasn’t enough time until he had to get back to work or obey an order. Many jews stole from one another and killed each other for food Ellie could only trust his father and they helped one another knowing that they may survive longer with each other. Although days passed where Ellie wondered how his sisters and mom were doing but he had to focus on himself this was a very sad thought in mind knowing you can’t help them he also started to think that they probably dead now.(Ellie Wiesel 2)
Ellie starts to question his own religion and god to why these horrors are happening. Also sees how the human spirits break. “Where is god when a boy is hanged, struggling against the rope that slowly suffocates him?”(Wiesel 1) Ellie also witnesses a boy who kills his own father for a piece of bread. One reaches the point where the only thing that counts is survival. Comparing his strong belief on religion and him reading the kabbalah to now you can see he losing his faith slowly as more time goes by and experiences more tortures and horrors. Even though all these horrors